As regular readers know, I love Happy Hari's Meena Supreme. I think I have bought up all remaining packets of Paul Eagle's original Meena Supreme (though there are a number of modern packets of Happy Hari's Meena Supreme, which all claim to be the authentic, which can be bought). As those who are familiar with Happy Hari and the Meena Supreme story know, Paul Eagle got all his incenses from Indian suppliers, details of which he kept to himself, though just before his death he did share his sources with Cory of the currently closed Absolute Bliss (Cory has cancer - folks who would like to support his treatment can donate at GoFundMe). I had been told a little while ago that this Meena Supreme by Meena Perfumery of Bangalore was the source for Paul's Meena Supreme. So when I found a source on eBay, I bought a packet. Sadly that source has dried up, and the Meena Supreme website is down (though details of their products are available on WayBack). Americans can still buy Meena Supreme and other Meena Perfumery products, and these can be imported into the UK from eBay, but at a cost.
Meena Perfumery belongs to the Kabadi family who say they are a third generation incense company, with the skills of incense making passed down by the grandfather to the father who then passed them on to the present owners. They date the start of family incense making to 1947, though the Meena company itself was founded in 1968. They are based in one of the tangle of streets off Magadi Road, Bangalore, but appear to be closed.
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| Happy Hari and Meena Perfumery side by side |
Without a doubt Happy Hari's Meena Supreme is Meena Perfumery's Meena Supreme. Same name, same picture, same scent, same fat fluxo sticks with the bamboo tips dyed green.
The sticks are composed of a fat, generous, dried hard, black paste crudely hand rolled onto plain hand cut bamboo splints with the tips dyed green, and the whole covered thinly and untidily with a white powder. I'm used to my Happy Hari Meena Supreme being a dried paste, and I have always assumed this was because of age. But this Meena Perfumery Meena Supreme is also a dried paste. It could mean that the Meena formulation is a dry one - though it could also mean that my Meena packet is an old one.
The image on the packet is attractive, and appears to be a Mughal style painting of a royal couple - possibly a prince seducing a princess beside a stream - he is pouring her a drink, and is gazing softly at her pert, partly exposed breasts and slim torso. It is rich with colour and soft movement.
The scent on the stick is heady, beautiful, exotic, and so very Indian. It is the essence of Indian incense. There's the soft sweetness of vanilla, and sambrani, and oud, the woolly warmth of halmaddi, and a comfortable woody base of creamy white sandalwood. It's at once exotic and familiar. It shifts constantly like a shimmering diamond. This is a living, breathing scent - warm, sensual, inviting and mysterious. The gentle sweetness is cut with woodiness and sharp notes - touches of a patchouli musk and a lemon sherbet. It is delightful.
The scent on the burn is similar, though less sweet, and the mineral notes of the sambrani tend to dominate. It is remarkably well mannered for a fluxo style incense - not too smoky, and not too assertive. It gently though firmly informs the room, and lingers pleasantly and cleanly for a long while afterwards. A damn fine incense. It would be greater if more of the promise of the stick made it into the burn, but as it stands it is a top notch incense. A pleasing sambrani based mix.
I am giving this the same score as Happy Hari's Meena Supreme as it is exactly the same incense.
Date: Aug 2023 Score: 44
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| Flora, Fluxo, and Supreme |
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I bought a pack of this from the UK ebay shop where I also got the Pushkar Temple incense from. https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/pilgrimsbazaar
ReplyDeleteIt must have been the last pack of their old stock because it was sold out then, but were available agin a while later for a slightly higher price.
I wonder if it was stored badly because it has a super ashy smell and barely an actual scent. Your post convinces me further that there must be something wrong with the pack I got.
Where/when did you buy it?
I bought it March this year from the same place as you. I'm pretty sure I sent you some Happy Hari Meena Supreme - likely a full packet. You can burn one of those, as it's exactly the same incense. If you don't like the Happy Hari Meena, then it's likely that you just don't like this incense. Scent is such a personal, idiosyncratic thing - it's very emotional. Stuff I like often works on memories and associations and emotions. It's really not an objective thing at all. The detection of scents is objective, but the enjoyment of them, and what they bring to each of us, is going to be individual and personal. It's very...Proustian.
DeleteYes you did! Even two - one of each of the batches you bought - so very generous! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI already did compare them:
They smell very close to the Happy Hari Meena Supreme Padma Store sells and I do like it - the pack of Meena Supreme I got from Pilgrims is totaly diffrent!
You bought the new stock. I ordered there in November 2022.
I hope they restock. There is only one shop in Germany (I know of) who sells them and they want 9,95€ for a single pack!
As the website is down, and reports from Google are that the shop in Bangalore is closed, the future appears uncertain for Meena Supreme. I am hoping that whatever problems they have are temporary, as I am curious about other incense that Meena produces.
DeleteThis review is great. Meena supreme never really caught on outside of India. The newest generation of the family branched off to start his own incense company. I’m not sure the name.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about the new generation of the Kabadi family and the incense he is making. Is it possible you can find out? You can email me direct if you don't wish to say it in public: silktork@gmail.com
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